EARL BALDWIN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3928, 19 July 1937, Page 2

EARL BALDWIN

CHOICE OF TITLE. AN ILLUSTRIOUS NAME. It is a curious fact that many people showed surprise when Earl Baldwin assumed that title upon being elevated to the peerage. One heard expressed on every hand an astonishment that the late Prime Minister did not take, with the title of Earl, some more romantic and euphonious name. There are some who believe that a Smith or a Brown so honoured by the King and his Government might just as well have adopted the titles of Earl Smith or Earl Brown. Should these people turn back the pages of history they would discover that figures almost fantastically romantic have borne this name.

It is a sufficiently startling revelation for them to remark that two Emperors, five Kings, and an Archbishop of Canterbury have been called Baldwin.

Flanders, in the Middle Ages, was one of the most powerful countries in Christendom, ranking with France and the Holy Roman Empire in politics and commerce. Ghent was infinitely more important than London, and, indeed, England was almost literally the hinterland of the Flemish industrial towns, merely furnishing raw materials for their manufactures. Its power and wealth, its art and culture were the envy of every European nation. This, the foremost principality of its age, was ruled for over three hundred years by Baldwins. The first Baldwin, Count of Flanders, eloped in a traditionally romantic fashion with the daughtei- of no less a person than the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The last Count of Flanders, Baldwin IX, became Emperor of Constantinople when the Crusaders attempted to found a Christian Empire. He was succeeded by his nephew, Baldwin XL In Jerusalem itself, after after the Holy Sepulchre had been won back by the arms of Christendom, no fewer than five Baldwins succeeded each other there as kings. As far as our own country is concerned its connection with the name dates from very early times. William the Conqueror married a Baldwin; but what is, perhaps, more interesting to us, is 'that a Baldwin married the daughter of Alfred the Great and it is to this union that the present Ear! traces his descent. In view of these suggestive, if scattered notes, it is easy enough to realise that a title in which the ancient and justly famous name of Baldwin did not appear would hardly have been considered by the present Earl.